Thursday, July 24, 2014

Last month I mentioned
that public officials and public figures who sue the press for libel have to
prove that the press acted with “actual malice.” That’s the legal term, but it’s
a bit of a misnomer. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court has defined actual
malice as “knowledge that [the statement] was false or with reckless disregard
for whether it was false or not.” (New
York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279-280 (1964))

Just as a reminder, I am
using the term “press” to include any media that has the potential to reach a
large audience. That includes your novel or your blog.

For legal purposes, malice
is not synonymous with ill will. You can have the best intentions and even
admire the person you write about. But if you know that what you write is false
or have serious doubts about its truth, that’s enough for a jury to find that
you acted with actual malice.

While we’re at it, let’s
apply the actual malice test to that female drug-addict in your novel—the one who
shares a lot of characteristics with your sister. But your sister doesn’t use
drugs, and you know it. You just thought it made a more compelling story. Unfortunately,
the fact that you know it isn’t true turns it into actual malice. And if people
who know your sister recognize her, no disclaimer will help. So make sure you
mix and match traits or change enough characteristics to disguise your model.

Let’s go back to the
reckless disregard part of the test. What if you aren’t sure that your facts
are true? Uncertainty isn’t enough to prove reckless disregard—it takes serious
doubts. Or what if you thought your facts were correct but your investigation was
careless or incomplete? It takes more than carelessness to show actual malice.
On the other hand, inaction may be sufficient. If you purposefully avoid the
best sources because they may prove you wrong, that could show actual malice.
You cannot ignore your obligations by intentionally looking the other way.

So what should you do?
Don’t make factual statements about someone in a non-fiction context unless you
have reason to believe the statements are true.

And don’t write a novel
about your sister.

__________

Kathryn Page Camp is a
licensed attorney and full-time writer. Her most recent book, Writers in Wonderland: Keeping Your Words
Legal (KP/PK Publishing 2013), is a Kirkus’
Indie Books of the Month Selection. Kathryn is also the author of In God We Trust: How the Supreme Court’s
First Amendment Decisions Affect Organized Religion (FaithWalk Publishing
2006) and numerous articles. You can learn more about Kathryn at www.kathrynpagecamp.com.

Monday, July 21, 2014

I must preface
this post by saying I’m certainly no expert on anything, but I'd like to share some of what I've learned with you in the hope it might somehow encourage you in your own writing journey. By the end of
2014, I’ll have been traditionally published as well as indie published with
ten books (six full-length novels and four novellas) to my name. All in the last four years, in addition to working full-time. So, that’s got
to count for something.

Not to sound like
a dreaded infomercial (I’m not selling anything here although I am posting a photo of the boxed set of my first four books as well as the
cover of my newest release, Moonbeams), I’d like to share with you what I consider the five
key factors to success in pursuing a full-time writing career. I’m hoping to quit my
full-time job in the near future, and—based on the income I’ve earned in the
past three months—I believe it can be done.

The following
steps are nothing more than common sense, really. You know these things, too,
but sometimes it helps to have someone else put it in perspective. As I mention at the end of the post, please feel free to add your own ideas.

*Pray. Begin every writing, editing or
marketing/advertising session with a time of prayer. Whether it’s one
minute or 15 minutes, I always present my petitions, both large and small, to the
Lord. He has been my Partner in my writing journey from Day One. I firmly
believe without Him at my side, and living inside me, I could not have
accomplished as much as I’ve done with anywhere near the same measure of
success. Write for His glory and know you can hold you head high when
you meet your Savior one day.

*Write.The only way you can get a book published is by writing it. The
only way you can learn and grow as a writer is by continuing to write, edit,
hone and fine tune your work. Make each and every book your best effort.
Write a good book and the Lord will get it in the hands of those who most need
to read it. Word-of-mouth promotion will kick in after a while, but don’t
get greedy and don’t get impatient. Sometimes—especially with a first
novel—it takes time to build the momentum, especially if you’re not with a big
publisher. But don’t ever get lazy. And keep writing and releasing. The more
books you can offer readers, the higher the potential for income.

Give
up the idea of writing the “perfect” novel. It’s simply not going to
happen. A book can be grammatically perfect, a book can follow all the rules,
but it doesn’t mean it’ll touch hearts. How many books have you read where it’s
sound from a technical standpoint but doesn’t affect a reader’s emotions? How
many reviews have you read where the reviewer says, “I can tell the author was
on deadline because the ending felt rushed”? Write from your heart and finish
your story. Then it will reach others with the message you want to convey.

*Join. Become a member of a writers’
group. Critique group. Something. Any organization where you’re around others
who share your passion. Guaranteed, you will learn more about the craft
of writing. The energy to be gained from fellowshipping with other Christian
authors, in particular, is infectious and one of the best things you can do.
After I joined the national ACFW, I learned so much just from reading the email
loops. One of the best things I ever learned was from Indiana’s Colleen Coble
who advised me to write a scene in the POV of “the one who has the most to
lose.” Give others the opportunity to teach you and be willing to share what
you’ve learned with others.

*Persevere. More than half the battle is
sticking with it. Writing can be a lonely existence at times. It will be
joyful and yet there will be the inevitable lows. You will be uplifted by
others and sometimes you will feel a bit wounded by the careless words of
others or by a reviewer who just didn’t “get” the message of your book. There
will be those who rejoice with you and others who will try to tear you down. That’s
a big part of standing firm in your faith. The Lord never said it would be
easy, but He said He’d be there for us. And, oh what a comfort that is! I cling
to His promises, folks, and I trust that you do, too. Keep at it and pursue the
calling of writing the Lord has placed in your heart. Tell His stories your way. And
tell your story His way.

*Marketing/Advertising. As it is, there
are millions of books written every year. With the advent of self-publishing,
anyone can write anything and get it published, and that can be both a good and
a bad thing. Be creative and inventive. Seek out your focus group. My book
series (five books now in release and more to come) is based in the Houston
area, although settings from all over the country (and more) are featured in
the subsequent books. After the third book released, I prepared and sent a
slick “ad” to a number of big Houston-area evangelical churches. I addressed
them to the ladies’ ministry coordinators. Do I know whether or not it had an
impact? No, but based on the sales of the books shortly thereafter, I believe
it certainly didn’t hurt.

Without going
into detail, I managed to get my debut novel (at the time published by a small
Canadian publisher no one had ever heard of) into the illustrious CBD catalog.
It only stayed there for two or three issues, but I accomplished my goal. After
meeting the CBD rep at the ACFW and then getting no response after several
emails, I used my common sense and got the job done.

Be
willing to spend money to make money. One of the biggest boosts to my writing
is discovering websites such as BookBub and Ereader News Today. The
first is expensive but more than worth the cost. Guaranteed, if you advertise
with BookBub, your book will make it to bestseller status, even if only for a
day or two. BookBub has a subscriber list of thousands and many of their
members download their daily recommendations. You must be willing to reduce
your eBook price (free and 99 cent books do the best, and the first of a series
book does even better). Seriously, your jaw will drop at the number of
downloads! Ereader News Today is a wonderful outlet, especially for those who
are self-published. The results are only a small portion of what BookBub can do
(hundreds of books downloaded as opposed to thousands in one day), but their
cost is relatively small but well worth it.

These are only a
few helpful hints that have boosted my visibility in the contemporary Christian
romance market. They’re tried and true in my case. Feel free to share any tips
that have worked for you! I’d love to hear them. After all, we’re here to help
one another!

I don’t know if you have read Jeff Gerke’s Plot vs Character or not, but according
to that book I’m a plot-firster which means I know what’s going to happen in a
story way before I know for whom the
story is happening. This tendency, I think, is one of the reasons I have been
confusing “premise” with “plot.”

What shed light on the difference for me is a tutorial from
Writer’s Digest called “Create an engaging premise in 4 steps” by Lisa Cron.
It’s not that what she says is new, per say. All I know is what she talked
about clicked with me and for the first time in 25 years I am confident that I
will be able to write my story the way it should be written. How about that?
And by God’s grace maybe we’ll all get to see it in print someday.

Okay, so what did I learn about “premise” as it relates to a
story? And please understand, this is my takeaway, what stood out to me and
helped me approach story with a little more balance.

Cron spent the first two-thirds of the tutorial explaining
and defining “story” before she even touched premise, but I found I needed the
education to help distinguish between plot and premise. What really opened by
eyes was her actual definition of “story” and her break down of the parts:

Story is "How what happensaffects
someonein pursuit of a difficult goaland how they
change as a result."

The plot
- the surface of the story, the events

The protagonist

The story problem
- the simulation

This is what the story is really
about

Oh, well when you say it like that…

Especially after reading Gerke’s book, I knew I needed to
work on character-building and I’m sure it helped lay the foundation for me to
fully embrace just how important it is to have fully developed characters –
what the story is really about.

Knowing your characters also leads to “premise.” To create a
premise, Cron has you answer four questions:

§What?What would happen if...?

§Who?
Whose story is it?

§Why? Why
will any of what happens matter?

§When?
Tick, tick, tick

I’ve always known Who and When, but not really the Why and
to my complete surprise I didn’t know What either. Wow! Twenty five years and I
didn’t know my What! I was making the “What would happen if…” about a plot
point, not my main character. I’m so thankful God doesn’t give up on us (on me).

About “What” Cron stated, “…developing a solid premise, starting with a surprise / something out
of the ordinary that implies a problem - before you begin writing, will
save you months of rooting around in the plot for your story later.”

In my case, “months” should be changed to “years,” but I
digress. I discovered before I could nail down What, I had to work out Why. Why
will any of what happens to my girl matter? Reinforced by another good quote
from Cron, “It's always the why - the internal story - that drives the plot,
not the other way around.”

The last thing I’ll mention that also really helped me is
her statement about two things every protagonist enters a story with:

Something
they already want really badly

A
misbelief they have to overcome to get it

These two things helped me narrow down Why, what’s
motivating my girl, and how what happens will affect her.

So that’s what I learned in a nutshell. You probably already
knew all this, but I’m just so excited, and thankful, I hope you don’t mind me
sharing it with you again today.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

As
a college instructor and high school teacher of Composition, I have had
numerous students who didn’t understand the difference between Revision and
Editing. As a fiction writer, it seems more daunting of a task to work with. I
mean, who really wants to go through their 300+ page manuscript numerous times
looking for a million misperfections. But I want to offer a piece of advice. A
little bit of instruction that might hinder the overwhelming task before any
writer.

First,
make sure that you write tight. You know, you use good word choices. Not vague
words. Two of my most hated words are GET and GOT.I can’t stand those words when I’m editing a
final manuscript.

Double-check
you have included all of these story parts to entice the reader:

Revision
is looking at the complete picture of your story. Don’t worry about your
grammatical errors right away. That is for later.

Suggestion
#1: After
finishing the complete manuscript, take a break. (If you’re time allows.) I
don’t mean thirty minutes. I mean, a couple of weeks. Go reward yourself! Eat
some ice cream. Buy a new book to read and spend hours devouring the contents.
Forget about your book.

Suggestion
#2:
After allowing some space between you and your wonderfully crafted words on the
page, return to it with a stack of post-its and a fun colored pen. Read the
words from front to back. Stick post-it notes with suggestions of what you
think need to be included on certain pages. Usually I place a piece of paper in
the front of general things I need to add as a whole, such as more tension
between the protagonist and her love interest. The post-it remind me of little
changes, such as grammatical errors I noticed without marking the text or hair
or eye color that is different from earlier.

Suggestion
#3:
Now is the time to actually dive in and start the overall change in the text.
Work on one chapter per day, if your time allows. If you do more than that,
then you could become overwhelmed and believe there is no way to finish
revising. Here are some questions to ask yourself: Do you evoke the five senses
in the chapter? Do you answer the five W’s questions? Do you hook the reader
from the start? Why should the reader care about your story? What makes it
different from what has already been published? Are the characters believable?
Is the tension believable?

Of
course, there are tons of different suggestions because every writer’s path of
revision is different, but here are some suggestions that help me minimize the
headache involved in making my story better.

Please
share any suggestions you have that work. I would love to learn different
strategies to apply to my writing.

Kelly
Bridgewater holds a B.S. in English and a M.A. in Writing from Indiana State
University on the completion of a creative thesis titled Fleeting Impressions, which consisted of six original short
stories. She has been published in the Indiana State University Literary
Journal, Allusions, with her stories
titled “Moving On” and “Life Changing Second.” In fall 2011, she presented her
essay, Northanger Abbey: Structurally a
Gothic Novel, at the Midwestern American Society of 18th Century
Studies Conference. Kelly’s writing explores the ideas of good prevailing over
evil in suspense. Kelly and her husband reside with their three boys and two dogs.